


tiger stripes

by popmart (tambsi)



Category: Duran Duran
Genre: Implied Mpreg, M/M, a conversation between friends, mentions of original child characters, stretchmarks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25978963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tambsi/pseuds/popmart
Summary: ”I see you’re looking at your stripes again.”
Relationships: Nick Rhodes/Roger Taylor (Duran Duran), Simon Le Bon/John Taylor (Duran Duran)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	tiger stripes

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as something to supplement space between some of my bigger and incoming WIPs pieces on here. I’m pulling from a prompt list I saved back in 2011 and I intend to write short fic from as many of the prompts as I can. 
> 
> I skipped prompt 1 of that list because it was simply ‘Introduction’, and I thought that was bullshit. So prompt 2 is ‘Stripes’, and this whole thing came to me in a flash during the last leg of my workday. 
> 
> Also extra credit where it’s due to Pink_And_Velvet for having a convo with me recently about pregnant Durans that just wouldn’t leave my mind. This would’ve probably ended up being a spanking fic otherwise. (Though...don’t be surprised if something I post up in the near future with that though!)
> 
> Note here that in this slice of non-canon, John is...a lot less addicted to things then he probably was in reality. Makes my life easier and this concept easier to digest, IMO.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

_Early 1993._

"I see you're looking at your stripes again." 

John, having been seemingly deep in mental reverie, pops his head up and around to where Nick is leaning against the doorway to their section of greenroom, small smirk on his face.

"Oh, fuck off, Rhodes." John half snarls, not really meaning it as a hand loosely rubs at the soft ridges on his lower abdomen. "S'not like you don't have them too, you know"

"Yeah, but yours are certainly darker than mine."

"Carrying twins'll do that to ya." 

"I know. Beautiful _tiger cubs_ they are, too." 

John grins at the thought of his girls, Carmine and Juliet, and rubs at his stomach with a slightly stronger force. "Absolutely worth it, they were." 

"...even having to sit on stage those last few _Sing Blue_ shows?" Nick pokes at the age old question as he finally makes his way to John's side, face softened with a fond look as he studies his closest friend. 

John had to roll his eyes and laugh, even though he and Nick had been expecting at roughly the same time, Nick had been a stubborn mule and pulled through his obligations like nothing was wrong, while he'd taken every luxury his status as a pregnant rockstar could afford. 

"Even then, Nick, yes. Certainly better than cancelled shows." 

_Not to mention that those shows had been immensely special acoustic sets, and the fans had been kinder to him during that time then he felt he deserved..._

"Fair point there. Not that management would've let us cancel unless one of us quite literally died." 

John guffaws at that, knowing that Nick is exactly right. Those were the times, and they had an image to sell. (Well, as much of one as they could have when two-fifths of the band was with child and decidedly _off_ the market, as well as another of the band claiming parentage.) 

"Yeah...that aside, was just thinking about...well, maybe getting pregnant again." John muses, finally pulling his silk shirt down over himself before he can get transfixed over the stripes in his skin. 

Nick stays strangely silent for long enough that he has to look at the younger man, seeing that he's staring at himself in the mirror in front of them, his pale hand also ghosting barely over his covered stomach. 

"What'd I say? Too soon?" John questions, and just like he had been earlier, Nick is pulled back into the moment, a blush forming on his face. 

"N-no. Not too soon. So is Simon pressuring for more rugrats? Hopefully you'll wait until after the tour..." Nick says, averting his gaze away from John, an absolute telltale sign that he's hiding something. 

He may be good at being private towards the general public, but he and John have been friends for roughly twenty years. It's impossible to hide much from each other. 

"Ooooh, no no, definitely not now. But it's just something that's been on my mind. Simon did tell me that he's always wanted a big family, and my body's time _is_ running out on the babymaking factor." John leans into Nick, comfortable and familiar with the way they seem to click together as they now both look into the mirror, marveling at each other and how things had changed over the years. 

_How was it that nearly a decade before, they were standing in front of a similar mirror, both freaking out that they'd been knocked up by their respective partners? Too young to be parents, still partying and partaking of drink and drugs whenever it was served to them (and then some...). Time certainly did fly._

"But really, Nicky. There's something you're not telling me, so spill." John says firmly, turning to the other man and poking his makeup covered cheek playfully. 

Nick takes in a deep breath, and John now sees that his hands -- now fully on his belly -- are trembling just slightly. 

"I couldn't keep a secret from you if I damn well tried, anyways." Nick finally says, voice down to barely a whisper that John almost has to strain to hear, even in the quiet of the greenroom. 

"Not to mention you were the first to know when I found out I was having Alaiyna. So I suppose it's only right that I tell you that she'll be a big sister before the year is out." 

_A hell of a bomb to drop on the eve of an album release, before a world tour. Before the year has truly begun._

But all John can figure to do in the moment is wrap his arms around his best friend and give him his biggest face-splitting grin. 

_Nick and Roger were gonna have another baby._

Nick was going to have another baby, some more tiger stripes of his own, and John promised himself he'd be there for every moment he could. 

_end._

**Author's Note:**

> If you’d like to chat or request something short, I’m niterunner over on tumblr!


End file.
